Making Sense of the World with Words

I decided that rather than getting a new hard drive for my (2.5 year) old computer, I would get a new one. Mac just came out with a new MacBook, and their older white Macbooks were a little cheaper, so I bought one and it arrived in the mail on Friday.

I have been thinking about getting a Mac for a while, but two things kept me from making the leap: the cost (I’ve been a poor student/English teacher for almost my entire life) and the snobbery of some (but by no means all) Mac users. I would talk to many Mac users about my decision-making process, and they would usually say, “I would never go back to a PC. NEVER.” It’s as if they had been in abusive relationships with their previous computers.

Despite the possibility that I might someday turn into the very Mac snob that I loathe, I took the plunge. And I like it so far. Give it a few weeks, and maybe you’ll hear me say, “I would never go back to a PC. NEVER.”

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7 thoughts on “New Computer”

Good luck avoiding snobdom, I wish you the best (and will judge you silently if you become one.) Anyway, I thought about what you wrote and it reminded me of an article by Alan Jacobs (a Wheaton prof and mac user)

Here he talks about a number of things but what I found most interest was his discussion about the investment needed to switch. Its feels to me like conversion (in any sociological way) in that the amount of buy in needed to leave one group and participate in another is high and therefor the perceived benefits need to be higher in order to justify the change.

Anywho… interesting. I’ve thought about Macs for a while now and likewise am concerned about the effervescent I-jerks I know.

Thanks Josh. I’ll have to check out that article. I think that you are right; leaving one group and joining another is a lot like conversion. That reminds me of the work of Rodney Stark, and also of a story that my friend Ryan once told me.

Ryan saw a friend of his recently after not being in touch for a few years. Ryan asked his friend if his e-mail address was still at hotmail.com. His friend responded: “No, it’s at mac.com now. I got saved!”

DianaDecember 8, 2008 / 3:18 pm

Yesss! You did it! I know you really got it because I was the only one to suggest anything on your blog…I wish I had some article or spiritual insight to give about your wise decision 🙂 instead I will just say…welcome.

MaryDecember 9, 2008 / 8:07 am

Let’s be honest, Elliot. You got a Mac so that you and your girlfriend could be that cute, trendy couple with matching computers sipping their over-priced espresso drinks at coffee houses.

Thanks! It’s good to be part of the cool kids club, but I hope I never forget what it was like to be on the outside.

Mom:

Actually, Mary didn’t try to influence me at all, unless you count her simply having a Mac around as influence. If I were to say what the biggest influence on my decision was, I would have to say that it was a combination of my previous computer dying, and me getting tired of the bugs, glitches and general slowness of the PC’s I’ve had.

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